Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in the teaching anxiety of preservice teachers in mathematics according to their learning style preferences. There were a total of 506 pre-service teachers involved in this study. Of the total, 205 were pre-service elementary school teachers, 173 were pre-service elementary mathematics teachers, and 128 were pre-service secondary mathematics teachers. In the collection of the data, the researcher employed two types of instruments: the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and the Mathematics Teaching Anxiety Scale (MATAS). The LSI determined the participants’ learning style preference: divergent, assimilator, convergent, and accommodator. The MATAS found the participants’ mathematics teaching anxiety level. The researcher used the one-way ANOVA with α = 0.05 in the analysis of the data. The study revealed that there were statistically significant differences in mathematics teaching anxiety between convergent and the other three types of learners: divergent, accommodator, and assimilator. The difference was in favour of convergent learners. In other words, convergent learners had less mathematics teaching anxiety than the other types of learners. The study also found that divergent learners showed the highest level of mathematics teaching anxiety.
Highlights
Research has demonstrated that many students have learning difficulties and show poor performance in mathematics (Halat, 2006/2007)
The learning styles of preservice elementary school teachers were in the following order: convergent learners, 37.6%; assimilator learners, 33.7%; accommodator learners, 16.6%; and divergent learners, 12.2%
The learning styles of pre-service secondary mathematics teachers were in the following order: convergent learners, 45.3%; assimilator learners, 37.5%; accommodator learners, 9.4%; and divergent learners, 7.8%
Summary
Research has demonstrated that many students have learning difficulties and show poor performance in mathematics (Halat, 2006/2007). There are many variables, such as mathematics anxiety (Baloğlu, 1999/2001), learning styles (Sloan, Daane, & Giesen, 2002; Peker, 2005), instruction (Vinson, 2001; Iossi, 2007), lack of self-confidence (Uusimaki & Nason, 2004; Brady & Bowd, 2005), teacher beliefs, environment (Uusimaki & Nason, 2004), lack of parental support (Engelhard, 1990; Uusimaki & Nason 2004), and gender (Altermatt & Kim, 2004), that appeared to affect students’ mathematics learning abilities. According to Cassady and Johnson (2002), high levels of emotionality are considered to be benign in exams when the individual maintains a high level of self-confidence regarding performance
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